Capper



Dec. 1, 1959 KlNSLEY, JR" ETAL 2,914,901

CAPPER Filed larch 5, 1957 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INUBUTORS Jomu wesuav AmoERsoM LEWIS H. K\NSLEY,JR.

1959 L. H. KINSLEY, .|R ETAL 2,914,901

CAPPER Filed March 5, 1957 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 IMUEUTOQS Jul-m WesLex Auoeescm Lawns INSLEY JR.

HIS n gme? United States Patent i 2,914,901 CAPPER Lewis Harry Kinsley, Jr., and John Wesley Anderson, Philadelphia, Pa.

Application March 5, 1957, Serial No. 644,142

4 Claims. (Cl. 53-319) Our invention is a device for capping a paper cup. It is particularly useful in capping cups of hot coffee and the like as it eliminates any possibility of the server burning her fingers by accidentally inserting her fingers in the hot liquid.

It is common to carry hot liquids in paper cups but in order to safely convey the hot liquid from the stove to the point of consumption it is necessary that a lid be inserted on the cup thereon to prevent spilling. Accordingly most flat bottomed paper cups have a lip or protruding rim near the upper edge of the cup which will receive and hold a paper or cardboard cap. Various attempts have been made to provide a capper which will insert the cap in the rim of the cup without canting the cap and spilling the liquid. The devices heretofore developed have not been wholly satisfactory in that they were sometimes inaccurate in the placement of the cap in the cup and usually did not provide any means whereby the cap could be delivered to the cup and be locked therein without being touched by human hands. As a result portable cappers of the type here contemplated have not come into general use. Health departments of various cities, while objecting to the practice of having the caps picked up and handled by the vendor and then placed in contact with a liquid to be consumed, have not been able to prohibit such practice because no satisfactory means has been heretofore developed which was sulficiently small and inexpensive to be used in the ordinary lunch room or corner drug store.

An object of our invention is to provide a device which will insert a paper cap into a fiat bottomed paper cup without the cap being touched by the operator.

' A further object of our invention is to provide a device which can be adjusted to insert caps in a variety of different sized paper cups.

A still further object of our inventionis to provide a device for capping paper cups which includes a cage which can be removed from the capping device and inserted in a box of caps and thereby enclose said caps within said cage without the caps being touched by the operator.

' A still further object of our invention is to provide a device for inserting caps in paper cups which can be readily disassembled for cleaning and which has a minimum of operating parts.

The principles of our invention and the best mode in which we have contemplated applying such principles will further appear in the following description and in the accompanying drawings in illustration thereof.

In the drawings:

Fig. l is a perspective view of our improved capping device;

Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional, side elevational view of our improved capping device taken along the line 22 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a top plan view of the capper taken along the broken line 3--3 of Fig. 2; 9

2,914,901 Patented Dec. 1, 1959 ice Fig. 4 is an exploded view of our improved capping device;

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary view of the plunger and plunger head at the end of the capping stroke;

Fig. 6 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of the cover located above the cage of our capping device taken along the line 66 of Fig. 4;

Fig. 7 is a top plan view partly in cross-section of the capped head taken along the line 77 of Fig. 4;

Fig. 8 is an enlarged, cross-sectional, elevational view of the slide taken along the line 88 of Fig. 4; and

Fig. 9 is taken along the line 9-9 of Fig. 3 and shows a cross-sectional, elevational view of the enclosed portion of the capper with :the lid biasing spring in locked position.

Our improved capping device comprises a frame 1 including a base 2 and an enclosed receptacle 3 mounted thereon having a pair of horizontal arms 4 and 5 extending from the sides thereof and joined by a yoke 6 above which extends a vertical trunnion 8. A plunger rod 9 movable in the central aperture 10 of the trunnion 8 has a knob 11 affixed to its upper end and a dished head 12 afiixed to its lower end. Suspended on the lower portion of the rod 9 is a capping head 7 which is freely movable along the rod 9 between the dished head 12 and the bottom of the yoke 6, the rod 9 projecting through a collar 7a forming a part of the capping head 7.

The capping head 7 has an inwardly projecting annular collar or rim 13 from which project the lands 14 which support a cap 15 when it is in capping position above a cup 16.

A plurality of caps 15 are stored in a slotted cage, or magazine 17 which fits snugly within a cylinder 18 in the receptacle 3. An undercut cover 19 extends across the top of the receptacle 3 \and along the arms 4 and 5 where it is curved to match the exterior diameter of the capping head 7. An aperture 20 in the cover 19 carries a slide 21 having one end curved for engaging the periphery of the lids, one by one, to push them through the undercut 22 and across the transom 23 of the rim 13 onto the lands 14 in the capping head 7. A boss 32 projecting from the slide 21 carries the knob 24 which is grasped by the operator to move the slide back and forth.

The caps or lids 15 in the cage 17 are normally biased toward the cover 19 by a spring 25 and a disc 26 seated on said spring 25. Thus, the lids are always in position for ejectment by the slide 21. The spring 25 rests on the inturned flange 31 on the bottom of the cage.

From opposite sides of the disc 26 project a pair of fingers 28 which extend into the apertures 29 in the wall of the cage 17. To hold the disc 26 and spring 25 in retracted position the disc 26 is depressed until the fingers 28 reach the bottom of the apertures 29 whereupon the disc 26 is rotated so that the fingers 28 extend into the slots 30, being horizontal extensions of the apertures 29. The disc 26 can be turned from the bottom of the cage by means of the downwardly extending tab 27, as may be seen in Fig. 9.

A slot 33 in the wall of the cage 17 receives the tabs 34 which further extend into the slot 35 in the wall of the cylinder 18. Thus, the caps 15 are always aligned for ejectment. When a cap is moved onto the lands 14 in the capping head 7 the tab 34 seats in the depression 36. Such depression 36 and the edge thereof upends the tab 34 when the lid 15 is pushed through the capping head 7 into the open mouth of the cup 16.

The cage 17 is normally held within the cylinder 18 by a stop member 37 pivoted on the stud 38 which is fastened in the recess 39 on the underside of the base 2.

The upper end of the trunnion 8 has a counterbore 40 in which a spring 41 is seated to bias the rod 9 upwardly,

Fig. 2. A second counterbore 42 in the trunnion 8 carries a cylindrical insert 43 to govern the throw of the knob 11 and the rod 9. Thus, the extent to which the dished head 12 may be moved downwardly may be varied by different sized inserts 43 to accommodate cups of different heights or cups in which the annular groove 44 thereon varies with respect to the bottom of the cup.

As heretofore noted, on depressing the knob 11 the capping head 7 moves downwardly with the dished head 12 until the under surface 45 of the capping head 7 engages the lip 46 of the cup 16, the relative position of the cup 16 and the capping head 7 being maintained by a skirt 47 depending from the rear portion of the capping head 7. The capping head 7 is prevented from rotating by means of a recess 48 in the periphery of the capping head 7 which slides over an elongated member 49 projecting from the exterior wall of the receptacle 3, Figs. 2 and 5.

In order to load the cage 17, the cage is removed from the cylinder 18 and, preferably, the disc 26 and fingers 28 are turned so that the fingers extend into the slots 30 thereby locking the disc 26 and spring 25 against upward movement. The cage 17 is then upended over a box of lids (not shown) so that the slot 33 slides over the tabs 34 which are aligned in the shipping carton. The shipping carton generally holds 100 caps and the cage 17 can conveniently hold the same number of caps. The loaded cage is then withdrawn from the shipping carton and reinserted in the cylinder 18 thereupon the stop 37 pivoted on the stud 38 is turned so as to engage the inturned flange 31 and thereby prevent the cage 17 from dropping from the cylinder. The operator then reaches through the aperture 50 in the bottom of the cage 17 and turns the tab 27 so as to turn the fingers 28 out of the recesses 30 and into the apertures 29. Thereupon the spring biases the disc 26 against the lids 15 and they in turn press against the undercut surface 22 of the cover 19.

In order to operate the capper, a cup 16 is placed on the base 2 so that its upper rim 46 engages and is located by the skirt 47 depending from the capper head 7. The bottom of the cup abuts against the stops 51 and 52 projecting from the base 2. The knob 24 on the slide 21 is first moved to the rearmost position (left hand side of Fig. 2) to permit the uppermost lid to engage the undercut surface 22. The knob 24 is then moved forward toward the capper head 7 whereupon the curved end surface 53 on the slide 21 engages the periphery ofa lid 15 and pushes it over the transom 23 and into the capper head 7 where it comes to rest on the lands 14. As may be seen in Fig. 5, the slide 21 stops short of the lands 14 so as not to interfere with the operation of the dished head 12.

When a lid 15 is in capping position on the lands 14 the knob 11 is pushed down until its recessed undersurface 54 strikes the top of the insert 43 located in the upper end of the trunnion 8. As the knob 11 and rod 9 descend, the capping head 7 moves downwardly until the recessed undersurface 45 of the capping head engages the lip 46 of the cup 16 (Fig. whereupon it rests on the cup 16. The dished head 12 continues to move downwardly engaging the cap 15 forcing it past the lands 14, lip 46, and side wall 55 of the cup into the annular groove 44. The insert 43 is of such length that the knob 11 is stopped by the top of the insert 43 just as the dished head 12 moves the cap 15 into locked position in the annular groove 44. The clear diameter between opposing lands 14 is slightly less than the diameter of the cap 15. Thus, in order to pass between the lands 14 the cap 15 is forced to assume the shape of the dished head 12 which permits it to pass the side wall 55 and snap into position in the annular groove 44. The tab 34 is upended in passing through the capping head 7 and is thus in position to be grasped when the cap is to. be removed from the cup. When the knob 11 is released the spring 41 carries the knob 11, rod 9, capping head 7, and dished head 12 back to the position shown in Figs. 1 and 2 so that the capped cup is readily movable from the base 2.

It is to be understood that this invention may be used with cups other than the particular form of paper cup illustrated in the drawings Without departing from the spirit of the invention.

Having described our invention, we claim:

1. A device for inserting a cap into a cup comprising a base, a receptacle for said cap mounted on said base, a yoke containing an aperture, said yoke extending horizontally from said receptacle, a plunger rod movable in said aperture having a dished head at the lower end thereof and an actuating knob at the other end thereof, a capping head suspended on said rod above said dished head and movable therewith, means for centering said cup below said head, slide means for delivering said cap from said receptacle to said capping head, and other means including an annular, inwardly extending flange on said capping head and lands projecting from said flange for bending said cap for delivery to said cup.

2. A device for inserting a cap having a tab projecting from the edge thereof into a cup having an annular groove adjacent the open end thereof comprising a frame having a horizontal extension, an aperture in said extension, a plunger movable in said aperture, a spring biased head on one end of said plunger and a dished head affixed to the other end of said plunger, a capping head suspended from said plunger and movable with said dished head, means in said frame for the retention of a plurality of caps in aligned position, other means forthe delivery'from said first mentioned means of the said caps individually to said capping head, a rim within said capping head for the reception of said cap, a depression in said rim for the reception of said tab, and further means for positioning said cup below said capping head, the rim in said capping head being of slightly smaller diameter than the diameter of said cap whereby the cap assumes a dished form as it moves past said rim under pressure from said dished head into the annular groove adjacent the open end of said cup, the depression in said rim upending said tab for the ready insertion of said cap into said cup, and an indent on the periphery of said capping head which engages an elongated member on the wall of said receptacle thereby preventing the rotation of said capping head.

3. A device for inserting a cap into a cup comprising a base, a receptacle for said cap mounted on said base, a yoke containing an aperture, said yoke extending horizontally from said receptacle, a plunger rod movable in said aperture having a dished head at the lower end thereof and an actuating knob at the other end thereof, a capping head suspended on said rod above said dished head and movable therewith, slide means for delivering said cap from said receptacle to said capping head, a disc and a spring in said receptacle for biasing said cap upwardly against said slide means, means for centering said cup below said head, and other means for bending said cap for delivery to said cup.

4. A device for inserting a cap into a cup comprising a base, a receptacle for said cap mounted on said base, said receptacle containing a cage for the storage of a plurality of caps, slide means in said receptacle for ejecting said caps from said receptacle one at a time, a spring and a disc in said cage for biasing said caps against said slide means, slotted means in said cage for keeping said caps aligned for engagement by said slide means, a yoke containing an aperture, said yoke extending horizontally from said receptacle, a plunger rod movable in said aperture having a dished head at the lower end thereof and an actuating knob at the other end thereof, a capping head suspended on said rod above said dished head and movable therewith, means for centering said cup below eaid head, and other means for bending said cap for delivery to said cup.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Lundeen Mar. 19, 1918 

